What’s New In Android 4.2.2

The latest update to Android 4.2 Other Flavor of Jelly Bean has started to roll out to select Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 devices. Suspiciously absent are reports of an update for Google’s latest flagship device, the Nexus 4.

This version, 4.2.2, is a 0.0.1 update to the operating system and weighs in around 46MB (depending on which device you’re installing it on), so to say it’s a “minor update” is a bit of an understatement. The code hasn’t yet hit the AOSP, so custom-ROMs based on it aren’t being developed just yet.

In the meantime, if you own the GSM variety of the Galaxy Nexus (not Verizon or Sprint) or one of the Nexus tablets, your update should arrive sooner or later. As usual, Google seems to be rolling out this update in waves.

Tired of Waiting?

If you’d rather not wait you can already grab the OTA update for the GSM Galaxy Nexus (takju), Nexus 10, and Nexus 7. You’ll also need a recent version of the Android SDK so you can can sideload the ROM on your device. After you have installed the SDK and installed the right drivers so your computer sees your Nexus, reboot into recovery mode by holding the down-volume button and pressing the power button. From there, switch to recovery mode by selecting it with the up and down volume buttons and pressing power to reboot into recovery. Now you should see an Android lays on his back with a red triangle. Press the volume-up, volume-down, and power buttons at the same time until you see a blue menu. Select “apply updates from ADB” and press power. When you see yellow text asking you to “send the package” navigate to where you installed the Android SDK on your computer and find the platform-tools folder. Next download the update file for your device (GSM Galaxy Nexus (takju), Nexus 10, or Nexus 7) and copy it into your platform-tools folder.

Last, from a command prompt with administrative privileges type in adb sideload (NAME OF THE UPDATE FILE).zip and press enter. From there you just have to wait until your device tells you to reboot. Once that’s completed successfully you’ll be running the latest version of Android!

Sometimes small updates can yield large improvements. Fingers crossed!

According to the OTA manifest, this update includes code changes to improve “performance and stability” but many are hoping it also includes fixes for Bluetooth A2DP issues and lag that was introduced on the Nexus 7 with the 4.2.1 update.

Performance

“Performance” usually means “faster”. To see if 4.2.2 is quicker than the previous version we ran a couple benchmarks compared to the “original” Nexus 7 when we reviewed it back in July 2012 (those scores are in parenthesis):

• Quadrant: 3518 (3549)
• Smartbench 2012: Productivity 3676 (3637), Games 2421 (2627)
• LinPack Pro Single Thread: 44.879 MFLOP, 1.87 Seconds (47.17 MFLOP, 1.78 Seconds)

Benchmarks, although a little mixed, are slightly slower on Android 4.2.2 than they were on Android 4.1, but close enough that you’re probably not going to notice in day-to-day activities — at least on the Nexus 7.

A bit less quantitative but still relevant to speed is how Chrome performs. When the Nexus 7 first came out performance in the Chrome browser was decent. When the 4.2.x update came out, that performance went out the window. So far in Android 4.2.2 performance in Chrome is decent again, but it’s still early in our testing and this could change as we use Chrome more.

Stability

With only a few hours of use under our belt it’s probably a bit premature to determine if stability has improved. We’ll hold back any comments about “improved stability” for now. Suffice it to say that we haven’t had any strange behaviors or random reboots yet.

If you’ve got some good news or some bad news about stability after the 4.2.2 update, we’d like to know about it in the comments!

Bluetooth

One of the promised fixes in “an upcoming release of Android” was the resolution of a Bluetooth streaming bug, specifically audio would hiccup or “glitch out” when the device switched from one network connection to another (3G to HSPA, for example). Although we are unable to test this on our Nexus 7, some people are reporting improvements, but not a total fix. Again, let us know how your Bluetooth is behaving after the update in the comments below.

Other Improvements

We’ll have to wait for the change-logs to be released before we know what all was included in the 4.2.2 update, but if you’ve already gotten the update we’d love to hear how it’s working out for you and what changes you’ve noticed! Make sure you tell us what device you’re running, what country you’re in, and if you got the update over-the-air or by the sideload method we provided above.